December

This is always an extremely busy month for us. With my birthday, Christmas activities and now my surgery was lingering around the corner. I wasn't sure how long I would be down for so there were many lose ends I felt like I needed to tie up both at home and work, guess that is the OCD in me.

I celebrated my 29th birthday. Its hard to believe that I am almost 30, which plan to celebrate with a bang! This year I wanted to do something fun, and since I am older bar scene isn’t my thing anymore. I heard about wine with design and thought that would be perfect. Wine with Design is a studio downtown Greenville, and you can bring wine and appetizers with you as you paint a picture. Now I was really scared of painting a picture starting with a blank canvas. I might be crafty but I can barley draw a stick person. It was something I wanted to try. There were 6 of us and was so much fun. Michelle and I have talked about how we can not wait to go back and do it again. I was also pretty proud of my painting! Although we all painted the same picture they all looked different.

Every year the Hospital System host cookies with Santa for employees, we have been going for the past 3 years since I started there. The lines can get pretty long but for me it is worth it because we get to see Santa have pictures taking and it is FREEE. This single momma with a fixed budget likes that word! Plus the mall Santa and pictures they have for you to purchase are not always the greatest.

I also held our 3rd Christmas party. I love doing it because I can see everyone and one time. The house was FULL of kids, but it was great! The first picture is of all the kids, I think one was missing, just shows how full the house was! The second is of me and my sweet Alice. I love this kid to death and she holds a very special place in my heart, for a reminder she is the one I helped deliver this past April.

Connor had been talking about horses, and about the same time my friend Angie from work offered for us to come out to their house and to come and see and even ride the horses. Connor was excited, I was really hoping he would get on one but he didn’t want to. He did get close to the horse pet her and brush her which is a huge step for him. Mr. Keith also took Con out on the John Deer tractor and let him drive all by him self (steering where ever he wanted to go), for the rest of the day all he talked about how he was a farmer now since he got to drive the tractor. We also played hide and go seek with her hound dog, and saw the chickens, it was a fun day.

I ended up finding out about this house on Facebook that has tons of lights and was free, we ended up going three nights and it was awesome. Never anything I had seen before. It was the Clark Griswalds' of all houses!

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My Cousin Courtney Smith did our Christmas Pictures. I really wanted something with our Christmas Tree and railroad tracks.

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Our Christmas Card for this year!

Christmas Time! Michelle and Kyle came come up and were here the morning of. Connor for a long time had been asking for a DS from Santa then about 3 weeks before Christmas started asking for walkie-talkies and handcuffs. Santa was able to give him all the above. He got tons of stuff and of course the house was a mess.

My surgery was Dec. 29th, it went well and my pain surprisingly has not been that bad, and not anything I expected nor prepared my self for. I have not been to the Dr. for my post op yet I am am not sure when I will be able to walk on it or return to work. I ended up renting a thing called a knee scooter and it is pretty much just that, it is an alternate for crutches and it is soooo much better also.

November

As I try to catch up on this blog I have a hard time thinking what the previous months held for us, thankfully I can look back at pictures!  Around this time, well about the month before, I found Pinterest, and will admit I have become obsessed!  It is a virtual pin board and you can pin anything and everything you find to boards.  I have boards, for crafts, my dream house, organization, tips and tricks.  Anything you can think of and you can find it there.  I have always loved crafting and enjoyed scrapbooking many years ago when Connor was first born and I was able to stay at home, but to be honest there isn't enough time now.  Along with not having enough time its also the hassle of pulling everything out and having to clean up.  I think if I had a designated space it would make it simpler.  As for now I don’t and that has gone on the back burner.  Back to Pinterest I have found so many craft ideas and DIY, and have started several projects.  One of them being this yarn wreath with felt flowers pictured below. 

I love the fall time, the colors, the cooler weather and of course Football.  I was able to get to one USC game this year.  I had fun, and can’t wait until next year when I am able to take Con to his first one.  He will be 5 and I think that will be a perfect time to start taking him.  He loved football and this past weekend bowl games were on and he chose to watch football over cartoons! 

At the football game I also had to lug this pretty (sense the sarcasm) little boot around.

 

I originally did something to my ankle the previous Oct. (2010). I was told it was a torn ligament or maybe a tendon and over time it would get better.  In my case it kept getting worse and got to the point I was no longer able to wear heels, I could only wear flat shoes, because it hurt so bad.  The week of my sisters wedding I went back to the Dr. and he recommended me wearing a boot for 6 weeks and we would go from there.  Come Nov. I knew the boot wasn’t helping and requested for his to go ahead and order the MRI as we previously discussed. The MRI ended up showing that I was born with a small accessory bone and of course my luck it had broken off, so it was kind of just in there not attached to anything just hanging out.  Of course he said surgery which I knew was coming.  I decided the best time would be to schedule it for the end of Dec.   Until then it was me and the boot.

November also brings thanksgiving.  This year was no different then others we all ate way to much.  We also got to meet my cousin Courtney’s boyfriend, and also my Cousin Blake’s Girlfriend Rebecca.  Connor loves getting to spend time with his cousin, Coleman and although Coleman was not in a good mood Connor still played very well with him.

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We also made a trip (Olivia & I) one Sunday down to Columbia to visit Michelle.  Connor for a while had been asking when he was going to be able to go and spend the night with Shell again, she kept telling him after the wedding.  Well the night of the wedding he literally thought he was going to get to go home with her. I had to explain it would be a couple weeks later. Connor hadn’t seen Michelle in a couple weeks and was missing her really bad and kept asking over and over when he was going to get to see her. So Michelle said he could come down, and spend the night.  I meet her half way and they had a fun night together, baking cookies.  We very rarely make the trip to see her because she is always coming up here, so Sunday I decided to drive down there and hang out. I took Olivia with me also so she would have something to do. It was a rainy day so we ended up going to the Children's Museum. 

Other Random pictures of November.

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Connor was able to build part of a sleigh when we went into Lowe’s Of course Grandma being the “handywomen” she is helped him. 

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Helping me bake and licking the betters. Loving his aunt Shell. In the third picture Con kept asking if he could have his own Christmas Tree for his room, and he likes Charlie Brown, so I thought the Charlie Brown Christmas tree would be perfect.  It even plays the song.  In the last picture this shows how funny he can be, he did all this on his own and was just hanging out watching TV!

The four of us (Mom, Shell, Connor and I) all decided to head downtown the Sat. after Thanksgiving.  It was my moms idea and she usually is not able to because of her knee I knew we had to jump on the chance.  It was a nice day as you see Con got to skip his Jacket for part of the day.  We walked around for close to a total of 5 hours!  Well we were down there a total of that time we also made sure we ate!  Con wanted to have his picture taken with every statue we saw.  We also walked across the Liberty Bridge, that crosses the Reedy river.  No matter how many times I see that it is still always a beautiful view.  Last but not least Michelle and I both cut our hair we now have bangs, and look more alike then ever! 

Mr. & Mrs. McAbee

My sister got married on Oct 8th. The day went by so fast from when we (well I, LOL) started planning a whole year ago. Ok I say I for the planning because my sister let me run with it, and boy did I ever. She had a say so in everything and I would run by everything with her but me and my mom are the ones that came up with most of it. The wedding weekend was started with a bridal lunch on Fri. We had it at this cute little store in downtown Fountain Inn. It was perfect, a little store that sold tons of cute monogrammed things, and had a huge open space on the back, along with small town charm it was perfect.

Down here in the south its tradition for a bridal lunch along with a charm cake. The bridal lunch is hosted by an aunt, or the bride her self, to say thank you to the bridesmaids' and ladies in the family. The charm cake is another southern tradition. Normally what is done is different charms on strings are baked in a cake and each bridesmaid pulls it out. Each charm represents something different. Such as heart for love, plane for travel, a baby meaning you are the next one, etc. My sister made an awesome lemon pound cake, I found the idea on Martha Stewart putting flowers in the center so we thought instead of baking the charms we would just lay them in the center and cover with flowers. It worked out perfectly. My sister also had a thank you gift for my mom to say Thank You. It was a beautiful well put together book of pictures from her childhood to ours and on up, it brought her to tears as you can see in the picture above.

By the time the luncheon was over it was time for me to go and pick Connor up from school and get ready for rehearsal. Then of course Dinner, we had it at a simple BBQ place.

The following morning it was go time. My cousin Nikki took Connor for the night so that morning it was just us girls. So in the mist of this I got sick and lost my voice. Go figure. Friday night it was gone but I was given some Rock and Rye (I believe another southern thing) its a brown liquor, not even sure what kind maybe whiskey???? So they say you take a shot and it will clear you up. At that point Friday not I had nothing to lose so I took one that night in hopes it would. Back to Saturday morning I took another shot and kept a cough drop in my mouth all day. We meet up with all the girls and made out way right over the SC border into NC to Head to Toe Salon in Tryon, NC. We had our hair and make up done and then made out way down to the chapel. I had not seen it the year before when Michelle went to look at it, so this was the first time I had been there and it was everything the pictures offered. The wedding was at the Cliffs of Glassy and the reception was held at the Grace Hall in Greer. After we got down with hair and make-up we made our way down the mountain to the cliffs. From there it seemed like everything was in fast motion. We got ready there at the club house and before we knew it, it was time. When we were all standing as my sister was going to make her entrance the two doors opened and the sun shun only on my mom and sister as a breeze came and swept her veil into the air, it was a breath taking sight. She was beautiful.

The reception was fun and the centerpieces my mom made were all the talk. The food was good, the DJ was awesome along with the exit and my speech was great. All day I was hoping my voice would hold up, it was a little squeaky but did its job. Until that morning I honestly had no clue what to say. I had started weeks before and just kept looking at a blank screen, I think I had maybe one sentenced typed out. It wasn’t until literally the morning of that it all flowed out. I had several men come up to me saying that I brought tears to their eyes. That made me feel pretty proud. Here is the speech.

Hi I am honored to be here tonight as we are here to celebrate two very special people, for those that don’t know me I am Michelle’s sister Tiffany. I have lost my voice so I am going to make this short and sweet, with out to many squeaks or cracks in my voice. I honestly had no idea what I was going to say. I have so much I could say and so many memories and stories I could share. When trying to prepare for this speech everyone told me to let it come from the heart. Until this morning I couldn’t get it all put together. This morning waking up next to my sister and laying in bed talking just like we use to do when we were little girls I was overwhelmed with 27 years of memories we have shared.

With us being so close in age she was always my play mate, well more like I was the child that would tell her she was adopted (although we look just alike) and before she came to us we use to have a dog, (seeing when we were kids we always wanted one but were never able to have one). I was always the one causing trouble; Michelle on the other hand was known for being the sweet and innocent one. Some may still think that to this day but don’t let her sweetness fool you. There were many times when I was being a perfectly well behaved little girl (yea I know hard for some to believe) and the roles would be reversed. We would be sitting in our rooms playing and she would scream out MOM TIFFANY HIT ME, and of course with me being the one that always picked on my sister I would get yelled at to stop and leave Michelle alone, well truth be told I was on occasions doing nothing wrong, and sweet innocent Michelle would just yell it out. My mom always thought that’s how the story went and finally about 2 years ago Michelle confessed that I was never doing anything wrong, it was just her trying to get me in trouble. Although she may not always be sweet and innocent I have always been able to count on her. We may be like day and night but I know that no matter what she is going to go above and beyond anytime that I need her.

We have always known from day one that we would be each other’s maid or matron of honor and that nothing would come in the way of that. Today I am blessed to be able to say that I have fulfilled my duties in being able to hand my sister along with my mom off to a great man. I have always wanted a brother and now I have received one that goes above and beyond of the expectations of having one. Not only is he a great brother but he is an awesome uncle to my son Connor. Kyle we are glad to officially welcome you to our family.

With that being said if everyone could grab your drink: "Today on your wedding day Michelle I want to raise my glass to you for being the example a sister always dreams of. I want to thank you for always being there for me in the good times and the bad and I want you to know that I am so happy for you and Kyle. May today’s happiness continue with you for all the days of your lives. I wish you the best! To the bride and groom!"

A lot of us meet downtown Greenville for a few more drinks. I was thankful that my cousin took Connor again for a second night. The wedding weekend wore us out! It was a wonderful weekend!

… and they lived happily ever after.

The last 6 months

Wow its been 6 months. I have really slacked in the blogging department. I am going to summarize everything up the best I can. It defiantly has been a busy past 6 months with many activities.

In the last post I posted about 4th of July, in that month we also attended Michelle’s first bridal shower. It was hosted by Jen and Danielle at Jen’s house. It was really nice and she got TONS of stuff. Connor of course attend and was the only male there, he ate it up. He had to pick out his card for her and he decided to go with a Happy Birthday Transformer card, and he was proud of it. Of course Michelle loved it.

August

• Con started school! He got into the 4k program with Greenville county schools, I was very thankful I knew it was going to be a huge help for us, in more ways then one. He attends school everyday from 8-2:30. I was fine the first couple days but it was the 3rd or maybe the 2nd day that I dropped him off and he got out of the car and walk right in like a big boy, not even looking back and that's when I lost it, and cried on the way to work. My baby is growing!

• There was also a second shower.. this time from Kyle and Michelle. It was a stock the bar / couples shower in Columbia, hosted by Ashley and Jackie. We made the trip down and had a lot fun.

September

was a pretty laid back month. Connor started soccer and as fast as he started we stopped. I always firmly believed if they start something for them to stick it out but it was a screaming crying fit every time. I don’t think he was ready. So hopefully we can try again in the near future. He says he wants to try karate and I seem to think he may be good at it, and it be good for him. That will be something I will be looking into in the next couple months.

This was also the month of Michelle and Kyle’s Bachelor/ bachelorette weekend. We planned hard for this so we were so excited. We rented a huge house in north Myrtle Beach for the weekend. Michelle, Kyle and I went down on Thu, and then most people started rolling in on Friday. Of course that weekend was really cold and rainy and we never saw the beach. It was nice to get away with no kids. I am glad most of their closest friends made it down I know it meant a lot to them.

#13 he looks so little!

October

This month was FULL of events. The main on being the wedding! BUT, the wedding will get a post all of its on within the next couple days.

• We always love going apple picking, and so of course me and Connor made our way to sky top again this year. We also did our normal fall traditions such as picking out a pumpkin and going trick or treating. This year I found a game cock costume that I fell in LOVE with I asked Con if that would be ok, he said yes (which surprised me, seeing he is so independent, I thought for sure he would want to pick out his own) He was the mascot I dressed as the football player and one night we meet up with Olivia and she was the cheerleader. We looked pretty cute if I must say so my self.

Well That’s all for now. I will have a whole post just for the wedding coming soon within the next couple days.